São Paulo’s Carnival Grew Into a Megacity Spectacle — Now It Cannot Control the Crowds It Created

A 22-year-old student was trapped in the middle of Rua da Consolação on Sunday when the crowd compressed around her. “I thought I was going to die,” she told Brazilian media. She was not exaggerating.

Thousands of revelers found themselves crushed against metal barricades during what was supposed to be São Paulo’s triumphant pre-Carnival weekend — a celebration that instead exposed a safety crisis years in the making.

For the first time, city authorities had authorized two megablocos on the same street on the same day: the Ambev-sponsored Bloco Skol, headlined by DJ Calvin Harris, and the beloved Acadêmicos do Baixo Augusta, separated by barely three hours.

The Consolação is less than 40 meters wide, hemmed in by buildings. When the first bloco stalled and crowds merged, barricades collapsed, revelers stormed a magistrates’ school courtyard to escape, and the city activated an emergency evacuation protocol.

The day before, Ivete Sangalo had drawn 1.2 million people to Ibirapuera Park and was forced to halt her own show for 50 minutes due to overcrowding.

The warnings had been explicit. A councilwoman formally questioned the city’s crowd plan on January 30, citing a projected 1.5 million attendees. The municipal tourism agency responded that it had ensured both blocos would perform “with excellence.”

São Paulo carnival crowds overwhelm safety plans

Governor Tarcísio de Freitas was blunter after the fact: “You cannot have 1.5 million people on Consolação.” The Ministério Público opened a formal investigation on Monday. Mayor Ricardo Nunes, remarkably, called the weekend a “success” and the city’s infrastructure “perfect.”

The city has since announced corrective measures: municipal agents riding inside trio elétrico trucks, two new exit routes at the Ibirapuera circuit, repositioned medical stations, and 6,400 municipal guards — a 20 percent increase.

The Ibirapuera zone, which still has major acts lined up including Leo Santana and Gloria Groove, will gain crowd exits through the state legislature’s parking area and via Rua Abílio Soares.

But 627 blocos and an expected 16.5 million revelers still lie ahead, starting February 13. The Consolação still has two megablocos scheduled, with no confirmed route changes.

São Paulo’s street carnival has been flirting with this disaster for years. Overcrowding incidents at megablocos predate the pandemic. Each season the blocos get bigger, the artists more famous, the crowds more unmanageable — and the fixes arrive one weekend too late.

Related coverage: Brazil’s Morning Call | Europe Intelligence Brief for Tuesday, February 10, 2026

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